Letters: Best friends

Best friends

I see some dog commercials on TV and many posts on animals on Facebook. My dog and I are best buddies, and he is the best relaxant for me. Our pets care more about us than most people. It would be great if all our politicians had a pet companion with them for comfort for the right mood in the decisions they have to make for America.

Many people should not have a pet if they ignore them and leave them in harm’s way. Our pets teach us so much if we just pay attention to them. The love you give them will return to you multiplied. In town or public areas, walk your pets on a leash for their own protection, feed them and keep water available to keep them healthy. In public areas, pick up after them so we don’t have to step in it or kids don’t roll in it while playing. Use plastic shopping bags or buy the rolls of doggie bags for disposal.

Ernie Gerald

Longview

Health care needs

I am saying thank you to our member of Congress, Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler for voting no on Trumpcare. We cannot afford to lose the ACA, because the uninsured rate is at an all-time low with 8.6 percent uninsured. Trumpcare will take way health care from many in the middle-class, seniors and the poor.

It is also good to keep access to women’s health care. One good way is to fund Planned Parenthood; it is only way some can afford to get their health care. Women will go to Planned Parenthood for a breast exam and get referral for a monogram. The Vancouver Planned Parenthood does diagnosis and treatment for STDs and all clinics have access for family planning education and care. We need family planning to stop unplanned pregnancies.

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A greater burden

Jim Walsh doesn’t understand property taxes. The amount we pay in taxes does not depend solely on the levy rate. The total tax is a combination of property value and levy rate. So while Seattle may have a lower levy rate, the extremely high property values in their county cause them to pay more taxes than someone in Cowlitz County. In fact, property values in the Seattle area have jumped 35 percent in the last four years. The average homeowner in King County now pays $5,660 per year, and half of this already goes to state and local schools.

Here in Cowlitz County, our property taxes are substantially lower due to lower property values, and yet Walsh thinks Seattle residents should pay even more so that we could pay less. He would rather tax middle-income earners out of their homes in Seattle than make the very rich reduce the size of their Swiss bank accounts. In the United States, it is the middle-income earners that are the drivers of the economy, and putting a greater burden on this group rather than the ultra-rich will result in a downturn in our economy.

Not only does the Senate budget place more of the burden of paying for schools on the middle-income earners of Seattle, it makes dedicated, long-time teachers pick up the rest of the tab. The Republican answer to funding schools is to make it possible to fire career teachers without cause or recourse to pay for new, cheaper teachers. Republicans take it one step further and want to allow new teachers to be hired without any credentials whatsoever. The future of our children could be in the hands of “teachers” who have no more education than the students themselves.

Walsh chides residents of Seattle, calling them “limousine leftists” and “champagne socialists” while at the same time reducing rural counties to welfare states relying on those same Seattleites to pay our bills. Maybe Walsh should go back to school and take a course in Economics before writing his next letter to The Daily News.

Nancy Zahn

Toutle

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